SECURITY STORAGE OF ELECTRONIC KEYS WITHIN VOLATILE MEMORIES

摘要

It is described a method for providing an electronic key within an integrated circuit (100) including both a volatile memory (102) and a non-volatile memory (104). The described comprises starting up the integrated circuit (100), reading the logical state of predetermined data storage cells (102a) assigned to the volatile memory (102), which data storage cells (102a) are characterized that with a plurality of start up procedures they respectively adopt the same logical state, and generating an electronic key by using the logical state of the predetermined data storage cells (102a). Preferably, the predetermined data storage cells (102a) are randomly distributed within the volatile memory (102). It is further described an integrated circuit (100) for providing an electronic key. The integrated circuit (100) comprises a volatile memory (102) comprising predetermined data storage cells (102a), which are characterized that with a plurality of start up procedures they respectively adopt the same logical state, and a non-volatile memory (104) having information stored upon regarding the predetermined data storage cells (102a). Thereby, the electronic key is defined by the corresponding logical states of the predetermined data storage cells (102a).